OCEAN members Defne Sunguroglu Hensel and Guillem Baraut Bover win the prestigous Tsuboi Award in the category of the most meritorious paper published in the Journal of the IASS - International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures [founded by Eduardo Torroja in 1959] for the year 2013.

The Tsuboi Award honors the memory of Professor Yoshikatsu Tsuboi (Japan, 1907-1990), former President and Honorary Member of the IASS, and his outstanding contributions to structural and architectural design. The Tsuboi Award was presented during the IASS-SLTE Symposium in Brasilia, Brasil, from 15 - 19 September 2014.

In 2003-04 the Centre Pompidou in Paris mounted an exhibition entitled 'Non-standard Architectures'. The exhibition foregrounded the capacity of computer-aided design, production and industrialization of architecture with the aim to showcase “the generalization of singularity, within a new order: the non-standard”. This was demonstrated by built and unbuilt projects by some of the key proponents of digital methods and techniques since the early 1990s such as Asymptote, deCOI, Greg Lynn FORM, KOL/MAC Studio, NOX, Objectile, Kas Oosterhuis, R&Sie, UN Studio, et al.

Now, a decade later, it is worth to take a fresh look at what has become of the non-standard architecture approach and to examine whether it may have ushered in further changes in the way architectures are conceptualized, designed, analyzed and materialized. The ‘Informed non-standard’ exhibition takes on this challenge and examines both the integration of computational design approaches and tools, with the aim to synthesize form, performance, use, and making and in an increasing number of cases the reemerging role of local, context-specific conditions that may underlie and inform these integrated computational design approaches.

The exhibition brings together five selected projects ranging from the scale of sculptural installation to large building including one of the practices that was included in the ‘Non-standard Architectures’ exhibition at Centre Pompidou, 2 Norwegian practices, and two works from the context of the Institute of Architecture at AHO:

Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at Kadir Has University in Istanbul - 21 February 2014

The founding and current chairman of OCEAN Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at Kadir Has University in Istanbul on 21 February 2014.

The lecture is entitled: Intersecting Knowledge Fields and the role of Research-by-Design en route to Intensely Local Architectures

Synposis:

Where does architecture as a discipline currently stand and how does it face tendencies of disciplinary fragmentation or even looming irrelevance?

The lecture will introduce an approach entitled performance-oriented architecture as an integrative framework for architectural design and sustainability and research by design in architecture. Its aim is to return architecture from the brink of marginality by facing a series of pressing questions. This involves critically addressing the fixation with exclusively idiosyncratic design, extracting from current and past architectures, whether built or unbuilt, promising concepts and methods, and intersecting a range of knowledge fields with the aim to deliver an alternative approach to the bulk of architecture and the built environment at large as well as questions of sustainability. The first phase of this effort was completed with the book 'Performance-oriented Architecture - Rethinking Architecture and the Built Environment', which set the scene by outlining concepts and traits for a non-discrete and performance-oriented architecture. Phase two is currently under way and focuses on the definition of 'intensely local architecture' and 'local tectonics' as an antidote to the currently prevailing globalization and homogenization of architecture.

Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at Yaşar University in Izmir - 27 December 2013

The Founding and current chairman of OCEAN Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at the Faculty of Architecture at Yaşar University in Izmir on 27 December 2013. The lecture is entitled: Performance-oriented Architecture - Rethinking Architecture and the Built Environment

Synopsis:

Performance-oriented Architecture delivers an integrative framework for architectural design and sustainability and research by design in architecture. The aim is to return architecture from the brink of marginality to a renewed relevance. The first phase of this effort was completed with the publication of the book 'Performance-oriented Architecture - Rethinking Architecture and the Built Environment', which sets the scene by outlining concepts and traits for a non-discrete and performance-oriented architecture. Phase two is currently under way and focuses on the definition of 'intensely local architecture' and 'local tectonics' as an antidote to the currently prevailing globalization and homogenization of architecture. The talk will introduce these efforts with particular focus on the role of research in reinvigorating the discipline of architecture.

Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts - 14 November 2013

The Founding and current chairman of OCEAN Prof. Dr. Michael U. Hensel will give a lecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture in Tallinn on 14 November 2013. The lecture is entitled: 'Performance-oriented Design en route to Local Tectonics - Rethinking and Reshaping Architecture and the Built Environment'

Defne Sunguroglu Hensel is project advisor for ‘Building for a Sustainable Future: Challenges and Solutions’ and ‘Urban Transformation and a Responsive Architecture: Some Norwegian Contributions’ in Istanbul - 07 November 2013

Defne Sunguroglu Hensel is serving as project advisor for the planning and organization of the seminar and conference entitled: ‘Building for a Sustainable Future: Challenges and Solutions’ and ‘Urban Transformation and a Responsive Architecture: Some Norwegian Contributions’, which will take place on 07 November 2013 in Istanbul. As part of the official program led by King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway, this architectural event is produced by the collaborative efforts of Arkitektbedriftene (the Association of Consulting Architects in Norway), Future Built and Innovation Norway.

For a report on the event at Building Information Centre in Istanbul: YEM Info